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The middle class in the United States is being systematically destroyed, and nobody is doing much of anything to stop it. Our incomes are shrinking, our share of the income pie is at an all-time low, our jobs are being sent overseas, debt burdens have soared to unprecedented heights and millions of formerly middle class Americans have fallen into poverty. America once had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen, but now it is rapidly being shredded. Unfortunately, this is particularly true for younger Americans. Today, families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent. That is astounding. The truth is that there are not enough decent jobs for the hordes of young people that are entering the marketplace each year. Once upon a time, a college degree was just about a guaranteed ticket to the middle class, but in 2011 more than half of all college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed (Read More....) [...]
What is the number one job of the U.S. government? Well, at this point the federal government in spending more time and money on redistributing wealth than it is on anything else. In fiscal year 2012, 62 percent of the federal budget will be spent on entitlements. How much farther do we have to go until everyone finally admits that we have become a socialist nation? Our government has become the largest engine of wealth redistribution in the history of the world, and the redistribution of wealth has greatly accelerated during the presidency of Barack Obama. Yes, wealth redistribution as a share of the economy also grew under George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, but Barack Obama has taken things to an entirely new level. Back when Ronald Reagan took office, less than 30 percent of all Americans lived in a home where at least one person was receiving government benefits. Today, an all-time record 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives government (Read More....) [...]
In the United States today, more young adults than ever are living with their parents. Right now, approximately 53 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 24 year old age bracket are living at home. But many of them are still in school, so that is to be expected to a certain extent. What is even more frightening is that one survey found that 85 percent of all college seniors plan on moving back in with Mommy and Daddy after graduation. But isn't college supposed to be about getting the skills and education that you need so that you can become independent and start a life of your own? Something has gone seriously wrong. Even more frightening is a different survey that found that 29 percent of all Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket are still living (Read More....) [...]
The middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world. The rest of the globe looked at us in envy and wondered what we were doing right. But now everything seems to be going wrong for the middle class. Millions of our jobs have been shipped out of the country and competition for the remaining jobs is keeping wages at depressed levels. Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up and up and middle class budgets are being stretched and strained like never before. Millions more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty every single year, and government dependence is at an all-time high. Finding a solution to the decline of the middle class is absolutely central to fixing the economic problems in this country. Without a large, thriving middle class this would not be America. The truth is that people from all over the world want to come here because they want to work hard, buy a house, raise a (Read More....) [...]
If a major economic crisis hit us right now, the vast majority of Americans would be extremely vulnerable. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 40 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck all of the time, and 77 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time. This is why there was such a problem with foreclosures during the last recession. When millions of Americans suddenly lost their jobs many of them quickly found that they were unable to pay their mortgages because they had no financial cushions. For decades, Americans have been trained that it is okay to get into debt up to their eyeballs and live paycheck to paycheck because times will always be good and jobs will always be easy to get. Unfortunately, times have changed and many Americans do not realize that what has worked in the past is not going to work any longer. Our economy is completely and totally falling apart, and economic success is no longer defined by whoever is able (Read More....) [...]
 All over the United States, rivers, lakes and streams are drying up and are becoming much warmer than usual. As a result, millions of fish have already died and millions more will probably die by the end of the summer. In addition, transportation along the mighty Mississippi and other major rivers has been significantly slowed down. Incredibly, more than 3,000 high temperature records have been broken over the last month alone, and the U.S. is enduring the worst drought that it has seen since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. More than half of the entire continental United States has been declared to be a "disaster area" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the price of corn has hit a brand new record high. Farmers and ranchers all over America are being absolutely crushed by this crisis. (Read More....)
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One economic theory states that we can never have deflation in a long term economy. For prices to deflate would be contrary to the built-in safeguards put forth by the government agencies. The main cause of a deflation would have to be a massive withdrawal of money from the banking system. As long as the money is insured, that is unlikely to happen. I tend to agree with that theory. It is unlikely that prices will go down long term as long as people have confidence in having their money in the banks.
One of the safeguards put into effect in the 30s depended on the negotiation of wages. No one group of wages, but all American Manufacturing was based on Union wages. Inflation and wage increases went hand in hand all through the 50s and to some extent through the 60s. Nonunion people normally could do a “me too” on the backs of Union worker's negotiations. If a Union member negotiated a contract for $10 an hour plus benefits, companies tended to pay the nonunion worker just a little less. But to remain competitive in attracting people, they had to match the wages fairly close.
In that kind of atmosphere it was natural for more and more money to be printed as wages increased at a rate of at least 4.5 percent per year. You can go to almost any book on Finance and Appraisal in the Real Estate Industry for a practical guide (Read More....) [...]
 In certain environments, conservatives often find themselves alone, dealing with a kind of alienation due to their political belief system. An academic Study that was co-authored by the Universities of Southern California and Virginia indicated that, while many conservatives understand the general liberal mindset, the same does not hold true for liberals when it comes to conservatism.
1. Ideology. Conservatives often face the fact that liberals do not seem to want to know what is behind their ideology. Thus, perceived notions, taken from media sound bites, are the order of the day. Often, gross stereotypes are portrayed of conservatives including homophobia, xenophobia, racism and judgmental bigotry. It is assumed that all conservatives wish is to ensure that the wealthy become more rich and that the poor and sick should die as quickly as possible.
2. Liberal bigotry. The frustrations that conservatives face regularly due to their political beliefs is in itself, a form of bigotry that is based upon ignorance. For example, in some instances, the participants in the UVA Study of over 2,000 Americans, were instructed to fill out their surveys as though they were a “typical” conservative or liberal.
The results of the UVA Study indicated that (Read More....) [...]
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